Faroese is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by about
48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 in Denmark. In total, about 80,000 people speak it. It is one of three insular Scandinavian languages which have their origins in the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, the others being Icelandic and the extinct Norn.
Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation, the ruling
Danes outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents, i.e the main places
where written languages survive in an essentially illiterate society. The Islanders continued using the language in ballads, folktales, and everyday life. This
maintained a rich spoken tradition, but for 300 years, this was not
reflected in text.
As a written language, Modern Faroese has only existed since a standard was published in 1854 by Venceslaus Ulricus
Hammershaimb. Although this would have been an opportunity to create a phonetically true orthography, as in Welsh, he
produced an orthography consistent with having a continuous written tradition to the Old
Norse language. The letter ð, for example, has no phonemes attached to it. Also, although the letter 'm' corresponds to the bilabial nasal as it does in
English, in the Dative
ending -inum, it corresponds to the alveolar nasal 'n' due to phonological
assimilation.
Hammershaimb's grammar was met with some opposition, for being so complicated, and a rival orthography was devised by Jakob Jakobsen. Jakobsen's grammar was
closer to the spoken language, but was never taken up by the masses.
In 1937, Faroese replaced Danish as the official language of the Faroe Islands.
Alphabet
The Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters:
- A, Á, B, D, Ð, E, F,
G, H, I, Í, J, K, L,
M, N, O, Ó, P, R, S,
T, U, Ú, V, Y, Ý, Æ,
Ø
Further literature
- W.B. Lockwood: An Introduction to Modern Faroese, Tórshavn (Faroes) 1977 (no ISBN, 244 pages) [(4th printing 2002) (http://www.framtak.com/books)]
- Höskuldur Þráinson, Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen, Zakaris Svabo Hansen: Faroese. An Overview and
Reference Grammar. Tórshavn 2004 ISBN
99918-41-85-7 (500 pages, most comprehensive book about Faroese) [Faroese bookshop www.bokasolan.fo (http://www.bokasolan.fo/leitabok.asp?bokid=3844)]
External links
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